Trump to hold news conference as he seeks to calm virus fears

US president said fuming after mixed messages in earlier speech panicked many, tanked markets and sparked growing criticism of his administration’s scattershot response

WASHINGTON (AP) — US President Donald Trump will hold a press conference to address the spiraling coronavirus pandemic as he seeks to calm a panicked nation amid mixed messages and growing criticism of his administration’s scattershot response.

“I will be having a news conference today at 3:00 P.M., The White House,” Trump tweeted. “Topic: CoronaVirus!”

The news conference comes as the virus edged ever closer to the world’s power centers, including a positive test for a Brazilian official who spent time with Trump and top administration officials last weekend and an Australian Cabinet minister who met with US Attorney General William Barr, Trump’s daughter Ivanka, and other top aides.

And it comes as the world has been lurching to try to contain the virus’s spread, with millions of students staying home across three continents, large gatherings canceled and more and more bars, restaurants and offices closed.

In this image provided by the White House, from left, Canadian Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair, UK Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government James Brokenshire, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council Joe Grogan, Attorney General William Barr, White House Senior Advisor Ivanka Trump, Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, unidentified, and Tracey Martin, New Zealand Internal Affairs and Children’s Minister, participate in a meeting with victims of child sexual exploitation Thursday, March 5, 2020, in the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington. (Andrea Hanks/The White House via AP)

Trump and his administration have been under intense criticism amid testing failures and following a Wednesday night address to the nation in which Trump sowed confusion as he announced that the US would be dramatically limiting travel from much of Europe.

Trump, who is rare to admit a mistake, told aides within minutes of finishing the speech that he had made an error when he mistakenly said the newly announced travel ban would include cargo, which it doesn’t.

The White House would have to take the extraordinary steps of cleaning up multiple errors Trump made in what should have been a tightly scripted speech.

And the president’s mood grew only darker Thursday — one confidant said it was “as black as it has ever been” — when his words to the nation did little to calm the public or the markets. Trump dialed around to allies while watching cable news coverage of the Wall Street plummet, furious that his efforts to bolster markets did the exact opposite, according to three White House officials and Republicans close to the White House who were not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations.

US President Donald Trump speaks in an address to the nation from about the coronavirus the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, March, 11, 2020. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

The president has obsessively asked for updates and the impact on the economy and has expressed a reluctance to use the word “bailout” or declare a national emergency for fear that either would rattle the markets further, according to the officials. That’s despite the fact that many in the White House, along with Republican allies on the Hill, have been urging him to declare one.

And he has flailed about for someone to blame, at times criticizing former President Barack Obama or turning his ire toward a familiar target, the chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Trump has repeatedly told those in the White House that testing kits for the virus were on track, even though all facts — and federal health officials — have said otherwise. With the virus only expected to spread further, Trump has begun lashing out at others around him for not doing more to stem the markets’ slide, lighting into Treasury Secretary Mnuchin earlier this week and grumbling to confidants that Vice President Mike Pence has repeatedly contradicted him in briefings, the officials said.